Frequently, it is desired to carry one's sporting equipment while traveling for other purposes. Thus, for example, persons who are tennis players like to use their own racquets, even while they are on business trips. To have to carry the racquet separately is a great inconvenience, because of its awkward size and shape, particularly when other items of luggage are also being carried. On the other hand, it is impractical for such equipment to be carried inside one's luggage for several reasons. Frequently if the equipment is of the type which has a handle, such as a tennis racquet, it simply will not fit, being too long to be accommodated within some carrying cases. Furthermore, to so transport such equipment may be detrimental or harmful to the equipment itself. Thus, if one were to lay a tennis racquet flat in the bottom of a carrying case, not only might the strings and/or the frame be harmed by other objects which move about within the case as it is moved about, but simply the pressure on it of other contents of the case might be destructive or detrimental in effect. Additionally, it is desirable that the means used to carry such equipment also be presentable and useful for purposes other than transporting collateral equipment, such as tennis clothes, so that, for example, the business traveler might also use it to carry documents during the business phases of his trip. Previously, attempts have been made to provide case means for carrying handled sporting equipment. In this connection, reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,976,698; 1,600,601; 3,399,750; and 3,368,655. Most such attempts have involved surface straps or other "hold-on" means for carrying the handled equipment on the outside of a bag which is suitable for transporting collateral sporting equipment, but is not particularly designed or suitable to carrying such things as business documents. The Gihon U.S. Pat. No. 1,976,698 proposed a handbag for carrying sporting equipment. including a tennis racquet, laid flat on the bottom with its handle projecting through a hole in the bottom of the end wall. However, such carrying means subjects the racquet to adverse and possibly damaging effects by virtue of the string portion being necessarily subjected to collision or pressure from the other contents of the bag. With such bags, because the aperture is positioned at the bottom of the end wall, such damage cannot be avoided since orienting the string portion perpendicular to the bottom is precluded, since this inevitably would cause the racquet handle projecting through the end wall to be oriented downward, making it impossible to set the bag down. Further, such a bag would be awkward at best because the racquet handle would, in effect, merely increase the size in the length dimension of the object being carried.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a carrying means for handled sporting equipment.
Still another object is to provide such a means wherein the equipment being carried may be protected against adverse effects.
Another object of this invention is to provide such means which also is selectively adaptable to transport objects not associated with sporting activities.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a means for carrying handled sporting equipment with the handle of such equipment projecting from the carrying means in such a fashion as to minimize the awkwardness resulting therefrom.
Another object of this invention is to provide an attache case in which a tennis racquet may be carried, which may be converted to a normal attache case at will.